In their painstaking research of the Scientology Sea Org, WikiLeaks have obtained a copy of a 1990 training manual. It is quite obvious why members are forced to sign a billion-year contract, as evidenced by this manual. Sea Org officials believe that if you don’t have workers, the organization will simply vanish.

As a child growing up I missed the Christmas tree and the beautiful lights. I wondered what it was like to wake up Christmas morning with the anticipation of gifts waiting to be opened. Our relatives who were not Brethren kindly sent us Christmas cards. We were instructed by our parents to lie them flat - standing up was too flashy.

One of the 11 defendants charged in the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints multimillion-dollar food stamp fraud case has been released from jail after striking a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

Initially charged with one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the nutrition assistance program and one count of conspiracy to launder money, John Clifton Wayman, 57, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to a lesser count of using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits contrary to the law.

"I offer up a list of five toxic behaviors everyone should recognize and no one should tolerate. It doesn’t matter who’s behaving in this way and the rule is no tolerance, whether it’s a spouse, a lover, a parent, a sibling, a friend, or a co-worker."

Seth Jeffs has a change of plea hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning in Salt Lake City. He runs the group's South Dakota compound near Custer and is a brother of the sect's imprisoned leader, Warren Jeffs.

Cults101.orgresources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics.Intervention101.comto help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.CultRecovery101.comassists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.